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Wednesday, 12 May 2010

Daily Mail- A Catholic schoolgirl has been branded a 'truant' by her teachers after she refused to dress as a Muslim for a school field trip to a mosque.

Staff had ordered 14-year-old Amy Owen and her classmates to dress in headscarf, wear trousers or leggings and keep her arms covered for the compulsory visit to the mosque after it was arranged to promote 'community cohesion.' more

Telegraph- The combined pension deficits of companies in the FTSE 100 reached £73bn at the end of April, up from £52bn a year earlier, according to Pension Capital Strategies (PCS), an advisory group owned by insurer Jardine Lloyd Thompson. For the FTSE 350, the deficit had increased to £88bn from £60bn. more

Global Research- In the past, war reporters bravely followed soldiers into the jaws of war. Today, it looks like the soldiers are embedded in the media instead, simply going along for the story.

This article asks a simple question that unfortunately has no simple answer: “Where should media publications draw the line when it comes to using ‘anonymous sources’ to substantiate their news reports, especially ones that risk skewing public opinion in favor of yet another disastrous war?” more

WSWS- The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has confirmed to the British Broadcasting Corporation that the US military is operating a second “black jail” at its Bagram airbase near Kabul in Afghanistan, contrary to the Pentagon’s public denials. more

Asia Times- As a result of government bailouts and stimulus spending in response to the global financial crisis, gross government debts around the world have risen to unprecedented heights by 2010 and are expected to continue on an upward trend for the foreseeable future as recovery remains anemic in many regions in the world. more

This is London- Two 10-year-old boys raped a girl aged eight at a block of flats in west London, the Old Bailey heard today.

The child was subjected to a series of escalating sex attacks at locations around the building, the jury was told, ending in a garden area. On one occasion bins were placed across the door of a shed so she could not escape.

The little girl said they had taken her scooter and told her she would not get it back unless “she pulled her pants down”. Finally the boys “helped each other” to carry out the sex attack.

After telling her mother what had happened, a hospital examination found the girl had “no injuries but a number of scratches and grazes which had not been there earlier in the day”. More....

Daily Mail- Militant unions today sent a chilling warning of Greek-style strikes and protests after winning a major legal victory for civil servants made redundant.The warning raises fears of months of chaos triggered by a furious public sector who refuse to accept painful changes to tackle Britain's financial crisis. more

WSWS- On Tuesday, the US senate began hearings into the Deepwater Horizon disaster, which took the lives of 11 workers in an April 20 explosion and has since poured millions of gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico, threatening the region with an environmental and economic catastrophe. more

Prison Planet-Telegraph columnist James Delingpole tells Fox News that the new brand of “conservatism” heralded by the arrival of David Cameron as Prime Minister is nothing like the real thing and will only hurt Britain as Cameron rams through the suicidal “green” agenda he shares with the liberals. more

Guardian-The Bank of England issued a stark warning this morning that worries over countries' public finances threaten economic growth and that Britain's new government must act "sooner rather than later" on its own deficit.. more

A SEX attacker who targeted a businesswoman as she ran on Hackney Marshes was captured by a group of footballers after they heard her screams.

Adelani Akamo, 23, had only been in Britain for 10 days when he clubbed the 33-year-old with a lump of wood and dragged her into bushes.

The Nigerian, who is here on a student visa, battered her face and head before assaulting her. He struck as scores of Sunday League football matches being played on some of the area's 88 pitches were ending.

The players heard the victim's cries and wrestled Akamo to the ground, holding him until police arrived. More.....

Stop NATO- NATO has taken over the former Warsaw Pact and former Yugoslavia, in the first case without firing a shot. In the second through two bombing campaigns (Bosnia in 1995 and Serbia in 1999) and three deployments of ground troops (Bosnia in 1995, Kosovo in 1999 and Macedonia in 2001).

All ex-Warsaw Pact nations outside the former Soviet Union now have soldiers killing and dying under NATO command in Afghanistan. more

European Voice-When the finance ministers of the national governments meet on Tuesday (18 May), they will be faced with proposals for further enhancing the powers of the EU to police national finances. more

Market Oracle-It took absolutely nothing to bring the stock markets to their knees, but nearly $1 trillion to give them piece of mind. Yes, the European bailout may solve temporary woes, but in the end, it is nothing more than a temporary solution. more

Natural News-Influenza vaccines have sent 57 children into life-threatening convulsions, reports The Age out of Australia. These influenza vaccines were being give to children under five to "protect" them from seasonal flu, but after receiving the shots, these children started going into convulsions. more

Spectator-A cynic, I suppose, might suggest that Labour’s apparent lack of concern about the sort of chicanery that seems to have taken place in Birmingham is predicated on the fact that it is the chief — indeed, pretty much the sole — beneficiary of the fraud. more

Telegraph-Research conducted by the Pension Protection Fund showed the aggregate deficit of the UK's largest 7,400 schemes swung to a £2.2bn shortfall from a £300m surplus in March - the first since before the financial crisis in June 2008.

The overall deficit was driven by a fall in the value of schemes' assets, which dipped by 0.2pc due to equity market falls and a slight rise in pension liabilities. Overall, 69pc of defined benefit pension schemes now faced a deficit at the end of the month, according to the pensions lifeboat. more

Times- It was a question that left NHS staff gasping in disbelief: the survey wanted to know how “cool” they would rate Adolf Hitler, on a scale of one to five.

“Cool” is not a word usually associated with the Nazi dictator who plunged the world into a war that cost tens of millions of lives. To add to their discomfort, the ambulance employees were then asked to rate Hitler in comparison with their own chief executive. more

Guardian- The Security service is facing fresh accusations of involvement in the abuse of terrorism suspects after a British man was detained in Bangladesh and allegedly tortured while being questioned about his activities and associates in both countries. more

Market Oracle- Gordon Brown Mission Accomplished as he leaves office by delivering a bankrupt scorched earth UK economy to a weak Conservative / Liberal Democrat coalition government that will sooner or later rip itself apart in the face of deep rooted ideological differences between the two which sows the seeds for a series of landslide Labour election victories possibly as soon as 2012 despite talk of an agreed fixed 5 year term. more

In these new times-Thursday’s election has been described as a shambles, a complete farce which shames the nation, after scenes of thousands being turned away from polling stations without being able to vote. Is this just another instance of chaotic Britain muddling along, like Dad’s Army, or is there a more sinister element, of systemic fraud? That malpractice had been at play in previous elections, in 2005, the Scottish elections of 2007 and the infamous Glasgow North East by-election last year, was more than evident. My view was that it could become the central focus of this election rather than the pseudo-conflict between three City-backed politicos. more

Global Research-For decades, we have known that heavy metals and chemicals can cause grave physical harm. Going back to Rachel Carson’s “Silent Spring,” we have known and been amply warned of the serious consequences of using or being exposed to these poisons in our daily activities. Thousands of these are well-documented carcinogens. more

Dprogram- Haiti’s earthquake on 12 January this year has been a lucky business break for some. The transnational firm Monsanto is offering the country’s farmers a deadly gift of 475 tonnes of genetically-modified (GM) seeds, along with associated fertiliser and pesticides, which will be handed out free by the WINNER project, with the backing of the US embassy in Haiti. Do Haitians know Monsanto made the “Agent Orange” defoliant sprayed over Vietnam by US planes during the war there, poisoning both US soldiers and Vietnamese civilians? more

Alternet- Nausea, anal leakage, dysplasia, and temporary blindness are not just great name choices for late 80's heavy metal bands -- they are but a few of the little prices Americans are willing to pay each time they swallow a magic pill designed to help them lose weight, gain confidence, stop shaking or become the proud owners of medically-induced erections. more

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